Simultaneously, conservative presidential candidate Paloma Valencia disclosed a separate $2.000 millones peso assassination plot in Colombia attributed to dissident Farc structures.
As Colombia approaches a tense political transition, the intersection of international legal battles and domestic security alerts has plunged the presidential race into high-stakes controversy. The outgoing administration found itself at the center of competing narratives involving detained activists abroad, high-profile electoral campaigns, and disputed threat assessments.
Washington Legal Proceedings and Beto Coral’s Detention
Franklin Humberto Coral, more commonly recognized as Beto Coral, was arrested by agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI in English), which serves as the principal investigative branch of the United States Department of Security, after promoting a march against the former presidential candidate De la Espriella.
According to the communication published by the Colombian head of state, a State Department attorney characterized the president during a bond hearing as an enemy of the United States while linking him to alleged espionage activities. Coral expressed to Petro that he was completely certain that this mafioso figure of de la Espriella, the president-elect, would facilitate all mechanisms, both judicial and non-judicial, to attempt to subdue his freedom, his dignity, and even put his life at risk. The detained activist urged Petro, who has just five days remaining in power, to leave the territory before August 6 because he was needed alive and with dignity to recover the country.
Following his arrest in Arizona, Petro denounced that the Colombian activist was a political prisoner in the United States and signaled United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the responsible party for his imprisonment. He noted that the communicator was seized and beaten by the Washington government due to the political support that Rubio gave to the defender of genocidal narcoparamilitaries of the Colombian people, Abelardo de la Espriella, who suggested his capture, referring to the incoming mandatary. The Colombian leader recalled that Coral requested asylum in the United States a decade ago because mafias could assassinate him, emphasizing that Coral is the son of a captain who was the victim of a homicide during a police operation prepared to stop the actions of the drug trafficker Pablo Escobar.
Paloma Valencia’s Security Alert and the $2.000 millones Peso Claim
Back in Colombia, Democratic Center presidential candidate Paloma Valencia announced that top security officials informed her of an active criminal plot targeting her life. The candidate indicated that she was informed by the government of President Gustavo Petro of a presumed plan against her by a criminal group, stating that a price had been put on her head once again. Valencia stated that a sum of $2.000 millones pesos had already been paid for this.
The candidate detailed that the warning came directly from Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, and National Police Director General William Rincón Zambrano. Valencia stated that she had been informed by the defense minister, the interior minister, and the director of the National Police that a narcoterrorist group had put a price on her head once again, adding that she did not come to complain, victimize herself, or ask for more guarantees than those she had already requested and that Miguel Uribe requested, and that she would lead the conquest of security so that Colombia could live without fear.
The aspirant provided additional details about the alert, stating that unlike past denuncias regarding presumed plans against her life, this one was informed directly by the Casa de Nariño, which gave her authorization to publicly disclose the case. She added that the National Government authorized them to make the public denunciation and that it had to be made public so that Colombians would know what was happening in the country and what the conditions were that those of them who were candidates were experiencing. The uribista senator maintained that Farc dissidents are behind the plan, stating that an individual going by the alias Buchetula was paid $2.000 millones to assassinate her, and noting that she could not report anything further because investigations were moving forward.
Contradictory Versions Between Government and Campaign
The public declaration quickly triggered a sharp clash of versions between the candidate and executive officials, setting off a political controversy on a Monday following contradictory versions between the Government and the politician herself. While Valencia maintained that the threat originated from armed dissident structures based on data verified by state security organizations, Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez countered that intelligence operations had discarded the existence of any real threat against the candidate, explicitly stating that intelligence work had ruled out any threat against candidate Paloma Valencia. The official specified that this conclusion also dismissed any link with the so-called Structure 42 of the former Farc or with an individual.
Despite the conflicting official evaluations, the National Government, through the Ministry of the Interior and the National Protection Unit, moved to reinforce the security scheme of the candidate.
Meanwhile, new controversies involving the administration emerged through Angie Rodríguez, director of the Adaptation Fund, who denounced a presumed plan by the Petro government to convert former paramilitary chiefs into pieces of an electoral offensive against De la Espriella and Álvaro Uribe. Rodríguez denounced that the plan arose in the Presidency and obeyed an order from Gustavo Petro and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti to organize a great event with former paramilitary chiefs, presented as the closing of the Ralito Pact. According to her testimony, the purported political objective was to get former paramilitary chiefs to publicly point out De la Espriella, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, and Germán Vargas Lleras, while noting that several attendees refused to participate and rejected being used by the Government for that purpose. Rodríguez stated that she declared about these facts before the incoming government’s transition team and that her narrative places the episode in a context of political and judicial tension, having coordinated the first meeting of the closure of Ralito in November 2025 in Valledupar, Cesar, with 11 former paramilitary chiefs acting as technical secretary of a public event called Social Dialogue Total Peace, mentioning Salvatore Mancuso, Macaco, Jorge 40, and El Alemán, and adding that Benedetti arrived on the last day while she was in charge of the agenda.
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